Domestic abuse fears in Dungannon over Christmas

Shauna Corr

Police in Dungannon have dealt with an average of two cases of domestic violence, every day over the last year.

And although the number of reported domestic incidents in the district has gone down by almost 14 per cent from 726 the previous year, police still recorded 626 abuses.

In an effort to deal with an increase in such behaviour over the festive period the PSNI has unveiled a new domestic abuse campaign calling on sufferers to come forward.

“The PSNI respond to one incident of domestic abuse every 19 minutes, this is a frightening statistic,” said Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton. “However, we still believe that a large number of domestic incidents are unreported.”

The new poster campaign, launched in the run up to Christmas, tells sufferers ‘domestic abuse is wrong, pick up the phone and make it stop’.

In Northern Ireland as a whole a total of 27,931 cases were recorded over the last year - and of that number seven people lost their lives - whilst in F District, which covers Dungannon and Cookstown, there were 2,630 incidents of violence within homes.

Of that figure, a quarter of all cases happened in Dungannon - down from 29% in the previous year.

In Mid Ulster as a whole the total number of recorded incidents of domestic violence between October 2013 and September this year was 1,474 - down 8% from 1,613 the previous year - and 5.2% of the total cases in the province.

And whilst this is an improvement in the area as a whole, Magherafelt goes against the grain with the number of cases reported to police in that district increasing almost 5% from 434 to 455.

In Cookstown, police attended homes 393 times to help victims of domestic violence over the last year.

Dungannon and Cookstown Districts come under the jurisdiction of F District police, and although domestic violence incidents have gone down - what’s more shocking is that incidents in those areas make up 39% of the total number dealt with by police who also oversee Omagh and Fermanagh.

Whilst Magherafelt makes up 11.5% of all the domestic violence cases overseen by G District police.

“Domestic Abuse is a frightening crime which can affect anyone, both women and men,” added ACC Mark Hamilton.

“Very often victims are isolated. No one should have to endure abuse and I want to encourage all victims of domestic abuse to come forward and report the matter to the police.”

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